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Buildings With Structural Movement:

You shouldn’t be put off when you see a building with structural movement or cracks in it. I’ve told many property investors over the years that a building with structural movement is actually a really good opportunity, and something you should be looking for.

Structural movement in a property invariably means that it cannot be bought in the traditional way using a mortgage, and as a result, any residential buyers will drop out. Your only competition will be other property investors who are buying for cash.

As a result, there is less much chance of a member of the public buying this property with their heart (rather than with their wallet) and refurbishing it themselves as they won’t be able to get a mortgage.

If you see a property with potential structural movement, always flag this up with the estate agent as if they feel it’s significant, they will update the property description to say ‘cash buyers only’ and this takes a lot of your competition out of the running.

Whatever happens, don’t try to guess the impact of structural movement. There are people who have been around property for a long time like myself with a good idea of what causes some of these issues, but even I am not a Structural Engineer. The only way you can get a fair assessment of the problem, the causes and the repairs required, is by appointing a Structural Engineer.

I would encourage you to put in offers subject to having a Structural Engineer’s report completed. When doing your appraisals, in your figures you might allow £5,000 for structural repairs and then if the deal gets accepted, subject to the report (which you might pay £800£1,000 for) then you will have an indication of the works required and an indicative cost to repair the property. If that cost is within your budget then you’re good to go if not then you may need to negotiate with the vendor, or take the hit, depending on the scenario.

In reality, most structural repairs aren’t that expensive, it’s just about approaching it in the right way. It’s very rare for these repairs to come in over £10,000 unless it is significant and requires underpinning. If that is the case then you may already find that a structural report is being given with the sales particulars for that property as often the seller will already know and have had that carried out.

My last tip is for you is for if you are buying a property with some structural movement from a residential vendor, and they feel they need to sell the property really cheaply because of this problem. Remind them that some structural movement can be claimed for as part of an insurance claim. It could be possible for you to structure a deal where the vendor of the property puts a claim in before they sell the property to you, and gets the insurance company to contribute towards the cost of the repair.

In summary, don’t be afraid of properties with structural movement they are a really good opportunity. Just don’t guess on the causes and repairs get a specialist involved.